Everest climbers will have to take their poop away with them, as Nepal tries to address growing waste problem
Those hoping to climb Everest this year will have to make some slight adjustments to their packing list, as new rules now mandate that climbers bring their excrement down with them from the world’s highest peak, in a bid to tackle pollution.
Most people who attempt to climb the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) Mount Everest do so via Nepal, paying $11,000 apiece just for the climbing permit.
With gear, food, supplemental oxygen, Sherpa guides and more, it costs upward of $35,000 to take on the mountain.
But the world’s highest peak has a poop problem, driven by the number of visitors, and the harsh conditions on the mountain, which interfere with the degradation process.
“The problem of human waste on Everest was very bad,” Diwas Pokhrel, first vice president of Everest Summiteers Association, told CNN, adding that at the mountain’s highest points, it was “polluting the mountain environment.”
Without the new rules, the poo problem was highly likely to get worse: Last year, Nepal gave out a record 478 climbing permits to climb the peak. Twelve climbers were confirmed to have died on the mountain, while another five remain officially missing.
